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Summary: Review of Cold Sassy Tree
Review: Cold Sassy Tree is rich with emotion, humor, and tenderness. Olive Ann Burns creates a well written script for the characters to follow. I thought Burns did a great job throughout the whole novel with Will Tweedy. As a teenager myself, I could relate to him. Will is a fourteen year old teenager growing up in a small town. Burns doesn't portray Tweedy as a sophisticated adult, but not terribly immature either. He has his problems throughout the novel and he likes to bend the rules a little bit. On a day that Will is suppose to be mourning for his grandmother, he sneaks off to go fishing. He nearly gets killed by an oncoming train, but safely survives by leaping between the tracks. Will arrives back at the house with everyone in Cold Sassy there to greet him. He becomes somewhat of a celebrity.
Burns also does a good job enacting Rucker Blakeslee. She presents him as a grandfather and the owner of a general store in Cold Sassy. He is a free spirited southerner who loathes the gossip. He acts according to his own ways instead of the towns. He announces his intentions to marry Miss Love after his prior wife has only been dead three weeks.
The book revolves around the marriage between Rucker Blakeslee, and Miss Love Simpson. Will learns this marriage is one of convenience. Miss Love tells Will she married Rucker to obtain the deed to his house. Rucker is much older than Miss Love and his daughters are a little nervous to hear what the town gossips are going to think about this marriage. A turning point in their marriage is when Rucker takes Miss Love on a trip to New York. When they arrive back in Cold Sassy, Rucker has developed a greater love for Miss Love than before. He asks her for a real marriage, but she has something to confess. She tells him that her father raped her when she was a child and fears no man would want her. Eventually, the two fall deeply in love.
At this point, the mood of Cold Sassy Tree begins to darken. Will's uncle, Camp, commits suicide Rucker desperately needs someone to replace Camp's job at the store. He asks Will's enemy, Hosie Roach. Shortly after Hosie begins to work at the store, he marries Will's long lost love, Lightfoot McLendon. There is much turmoil. Another dark moment is when the store is robbed and Rucker is beat up. He survives but later catches pneumonia. He dies shortly after he becomes ill.
Cold Sassy Tree was written in the first person point of view. This was a good choice by Burns because it gives the book a better feel. The reader can imagine being right there in Cold Sassy. Burns also does an excellent job writing the language throughout the book. She provides a clear feeling of understanding in the novel. She uses apostrophes such as "I don't know'm" and "I s'pose." You can just hear them talking. I think Cold Sassy Tree is a good piece of literature. The dialect and the way the book is presented, really sets the tone and enables the reader to think and draw a mental picture of the novel.
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Summary: A Second look at Cold Sassy Tree
Review: Critically looking at Cold Sassy Tree, we can discern that the author had experience with the book's setting and the people of the time. The southern dialect included in the book gives the reader the sense of actually conversing with Grandpa Rucker and Will Tweedy. Although this method of writing is not exceptionally difficult to interpret, it may prove to be incomprehensible for a northern reader. Will Tweedy's first person point of view was an interesting decision, but perhaps it was not the wisest one. Will Tweedy embellishes stories and shows a biased view towards certain characters, such as Campbell and Loma. This would have been avoided by the selection of a third person narrator. Had Will not been the main voice of the story, the imperfections of Rucker Blakeslee may have been more prominent. Hosie Roach would most likely look like a more honorable person. Other characters in addition to Will Tweedy hold unreasonable and untested opinions. The people of Cold Sassy detest the mill town residents because they are than those who live in Cold Sassy. In this and many other aspects the characters presented in the book are quite believable. The vivid portrayal of Rucker Blakeslee, a successful, penny pinching store owner in a small town of Georgia, and the dynamics and intensity in which the rest of the characters are written add to the story's readability. The book has artistic merit because it provokes the thought of internal desires and their value compared to the feelings of others. Rucker has a desire for the young Miss Love, but when he acts on his desire; his family is shamed by the scandal. The book's plot is a product of much time, thought, and creativity. It is intriguing and captivating. Even portions of the book focused on the everyday lives of the characters prove to be enjoyable reading. The story of growing up in a small southern town draws in the reader. It's formulated where it is impossible to stop reading. Imagining people still reading Cold Sassy Tree a century from now is not difficult.
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Summary: School Literature Review
Review: Olive Ann Burns did a great job with Cold Sassy Tree and its southern style; although, it did have its substandard side. She put in a very southern dialect, which could bring about a good or bad situation. In Cold Sassy, Georgia, most everyone went by a strict moral code. Gossip was a strong factor, same with the world today! Stories and other events of every sort got around Cold Sassy very fast. So, when word got around about Rucker and Love Simpson getting engaged, the town began to judge Rucker and his "Yankee" fiance. Making matters worse, Rucker's wife, Mattie Lou, had just recently died 3 weeks prior to this affair. Will Tweedy, Rucker's 14-year- old grandson, is the only one who sees through Love's witty appearance.
Will is also the narrator of Cold Sassy Tree. You get to view most of the story's events through his perspective. This also brings back the idea of the good versus bad in Burns' writing. In one reader's point of view, this is good because the reader is able to put his/herself into Will's shoes and "walk around for a while." Another reader would disagree and say that you should get all different perspectives, especially with an eventful book as Cold Sassy.
The plot of this book is very controversial. Is it the maturation of a young boy, the obnoxious judgments humans can perceive of other people, or the wants and needs of adults when they are lonely and in need of love? This question most likely came to your mind after you read this book, and depending on what way you look at it, any of these topics could be correct! So it's up to you! Read this book and ask yourself these questions: (1) Was it right or wrong for Rucker to find a new love just 3 weeks after his wife's death? (2)Was it just or unjust the way the townspeople of Cold Sassy, Georgia judged Love Simpson just because she was a "Yankee?" and (3) What theme do you think best describes the plot of Cold Sassy Tree? Cold Sassy Tree was a fantastic book and I recommend it to all ages of readers. Cold Sassy Tree is the type of book you do not want to put down, it keeps ur mind wondering!
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Summary: Cold Sassy Tree: A Beautiful Bore
Review: Olive Ann Burns' Cold Sassy Tree is a well-crafted, pleasant novel whose lack of action is offset by a beautiful story which draws the reader into a strikingly detailed, realistic southern town in Georgia. The narrator of Cold Sassy Tree is the novel's main character, Will Tweedy. While the first person narrative makes the story more personal, it also hinders the reader's ability to interpret certain aspects of the novel. For instance, Will admires his grandfather, Rucker, too much to see through the seemingly loving gesture Rucker carries out for his dead wife, Mattie Lou. Will's reaction to his grandfather's lining Mattie Lou's grave with roses encourages the reader to look at the gesture positively. Will says this after the grave lining, "Later, remembering that morning, I had no question in my mind: Grandpa's eloping wasn't a matter of him not loving Granny or not respecting the dead. He just needed a cheap cook" (Burns 48). Only with an unbiased eye can the reader realize that Rucker's method of burial was merely meant to clear his own conscience, for he had lusted after another woman, the Yankee Love Simpson, since the day he saw her. Burns uses no lavish language in her novel, for the narration is written in a southern dialect. Since a southern boy is the narrator, the use of dialect in the narration is rational, but it causes the reader to stumble at times. However, Burns uses Will's dialect to reach readers on a personal level, a goal she accomplishes impeccably.
The point of view and language of the narration of Cold Sassy Tree are tributes to Burns's character development skills. Having Will tell the story and share his own thoughts in his own dialect helps the reader become more familiar with him. Readers live the story told in Cold Sassy Tree through the eyes of Will. Will is the most average and realistic character of all the characters in Cold Sassy Tree. Any male beyond the age of thirteen is able to relate his own teenage years to the narrator's. Will's temper and rebelliousness are ubiquitous characteristics of teenage boys. Although Will's sexual thoughts make the reader uncomfortable at times, Burns uses them to reach readers on a private level. (...) The rest of the characters of Cold Sassy Tree are not as easy to relate to as Will is, but most surpass him in indviduality. Rucker Blakeslee, although he is in his fifties, is as obstinate as and elderly man, but at the same time, he is as passionate as a fourteen year-old boy. Love Simpson is selfish, manipulative, and untraditional in her defiance of southern behavior as her husband, Rucker, is. Love is also the only Yankee in the book. Loma Blakeslee is the spoiled little sister everyone knows grown into a young woman. The narrator tells us that Loma "[...] hadn't grown any that I [Will] could see. If it didn't suit her for her daddy to marry again, why he just wasn't going to" (Burns 12). Will's parents, Mary Willis and Hoyt Toy, are stereotypical small town parents in the South. They gossip, they go to church every Sunday, and they are middle class, honest citizens of Cold Sassy. These are all characters of Burns's imagination through which she captures the fundamental nature of southern life.
Unlike her characters, the plot of Cold Sassy Tree does not showcase Burns's skills to their fullest potenial. Her narrative is simply not exciting enough to entertain today's society. The conflict at the plot's center is a concept with which readers are very familiar. Readers of this novel are not strangers to conflicts such as old versus new and change versus tradition. Some scenes of the novel are exhilarating, such as the robbery of Rucker's store, but on the whole, the plot is more tiresome than gripping. There is only one myster in Cold Sassy Tree, but it is almost too predictable to assume the title of mystery. Rucker marries Love Simpson three weeks after his wife's death, and after a rather long period of time, Burns finally reveals that Rucker married Love because he had been lusting after her even when he was still married to Mattie Lou. Of course, the resolution of the myster is what most have in mind when they hear of a man in his fifties marrying an attractive woman in her thirties. The plot supports the book and characters remarkably well, and vice versa, helping form a very structured novel, but Cold Sassy Tree would have been far better had the plot been more stimulating. Burns obviously wrote Cold Sassy Tree to be an enjoyable novel, not one that would engage a reader for hours on end. Although the book is set in the early 1900's, it will not be frozen in that setting, only appealing to those who lived in the South during the early twentieth century. Cold Sassy Tree will be as enjoyable for readers in the twenty-second century as it was to people in the twentieth, but by that time, most readers will have lost knowledge of the more rural, less urbanized South. This novel is intriguing and thought-provoking, but it is not worth reading more than once.
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Summary: Cold Sassy Tree
Review: Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns is an outstandingly realistic depiction of 19th century small-town southern life. Every character is incredibly believable and so much attracts you to the summit of the story that you find yourself turning page after page. Several characters in the novel are hardly discussed, but Grandpa Blakeslee and Miss Love are incredibly picturesque. Burns provides the reader with enough detail for these two characters that they become as familiar as a relative or old friend. From Grandpa's facing the coming of age, to his stubborn ways, to Miss Love's flamboyant personality, the reader knows the characters head to toe. Burns tells the reader a multitude about these two enjoyable characters, and yet it is just enough. Grandpa Rucker Blakeslee elopes with Miss Love unexpectedly, Grandpa takes Love Simpson to New York City, and Uncle Camp commits suicide. These events twist the novel in a way unforeseen by the reader, and are therefore enthralling and surprising. A dilatory start is followed by a few hundred pages of exciting twists and turns that are anything but dull. Cold Sassy's humorous "Christian" society has proved to be enjoyed by readers of a vast audience. For numerous southerners, comfort is found in this book that takes humor from their simple daily lives. Others come away with much more than southern history from Cold Sassy. Death, change, romance, and prejudice play major roles that teach us about ourselves and life today.
Will Tweedy narrarates in Cold Sassy Tree. Although he tells these stories as though he were still thirteen years old, he writes this book of childhood remembrances when he is in his early twenties. Will's Aunt Loma gave him a journal to record times he saw important throughout his teenage years. While writing Cold Sassy Tree he frequently refers back to this journal. From these journal entries it is blatantly obvious how much of his opinion as a younger boy was drawn from his parents', grandfather's, and the town as a whole's opinions rather than his own. As the novel proceeds he begins to form his own ideas and opinions. The reader, therefore, hears not only the narrarator's beliefs but many other characters' beliefs as well. Will wastes absolutely no time telling a story, unless he wants to dwell on details. At times, Will is not thoroughly reliable. On a camping trip with his friends, he conjures up untruthful tales about Aunt Loma nursing a pig and wearing inflatable bosoms at her wedding. Will's narraration gives the reader an insight into the prejudice and gossip of the town. Through Will Tweedy, Burns writes a dialogue that pulls the reader into the
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southern society of the 1900's. Grandpa Blakeslee says, "Pa, you reckon they spotted out battle-ments? If'n they did, Lord hep us!" and "We ain't go'n march t'morrer?" (370-371). Had there been a different narrarator, readers would certainly see more solid views than were presented by Will, but through his narraration, Burns welcomes humor into Cold Sassy Tree.
Olive Ann Burns is an incredible author. Her writings flow gracefully on paper, and she incorporates simple vocabulary into her novel, which matches perfectly her town's far from sophisticated lifestyle. Her writings and Will Tweedy's writings fit hand-in-hand. The novel is very polished and unique. Few writers can so perfectly capture an exact society and its citizens in a few hundred pages. Certainly, Burns is a master storyteller. Whether the characters are joyous, sad, or furious, the reader feels the emotions of the characters. Thousands of readers of Cold Sassy Tree learned that while reading it they would laugh and cry, even after reading it again and again. A sense of sadness, yet completeness is found after finishing the novel. Change finally comes around to Cold Sassy, and Rucker Blakeslee is not there to see it, but the reader knows that in this way the world functions, and we enjoy all we can from life while we are here. Cold Sassy Tree not only entertains the reader through Will's laughable antics, but challenges the reader to learn from Cold Sassy's mistakes such as holding back change, prejudice towards mill people, and judging friends and even family. The novel also teaches the reader how to cope with the deaths of loved ones, and that anyone should be able to live in a way they please without being criticized. Lastly, Olive Ann leaves the reader with a strong sense of southern life that is not easily forgotten. Cold Sassy Tree is a timeless piece of literature that will be read and reread by thousands for years to come.
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Summary: Interesting Tree
Review: Cold Sassy Tree is a well-written book, written by Olive Ann Burns. This book tends to have a strong structure. Will Tweedy is a boy going through adolescence in the worst way possible. Everything that happens in Cold Sassy, Georgia seems to effect him in some way. When the cars come to town, the Tweedy family is one of the first people to purchase one. However, Will Tweedy is well - rounded. He seems to be like his grandfather in many ways. His opinions of the town and its ways come from his grandfather. Will Tweedy focuses on his academics. He quickly learns how to drive. Will Tweedy is a well - described main character.
The plot, though very difficult to get into, is a good one. Action is always going on, this movement makes the book exciting. The marriage between Ms. Love and Rucker is a very unique union. It causes many rumors all over the town. The marriage also gives the plot a beginning. Loma's depression towards herself triggers her offensiveness toward others, some of whom are Rucker, Will, and most importantly Campbell, her husband. There are a very few number of dulling points in the novel. One of which is the camping trip with Will Tweedy and his friends. The trip seems to be a way to prolong the novel itself. Though dull anecdotes are apparent, Burns tends to keep the reader fascinated and compelled to continue to read.
Burns' choice of a narrator is well thought of. Still, one might wonder if the story seems one - sided; Will Tweedy has much internal hate towards Aunt Loma, since she wanted him to start calling her Aunt Loma, and when she broke his toy soldiers as a child. The reader is forced to have that same hate, even if she wasn't so horrible. Hosie Roach was a just boy attempting to except the expectations people had for him and other mill people. He had to stop going to school, this situtation was hard, that didn't keep him down though. The audience sees him as a dirty, unintelligent, job - taking pig. A more well - rounded story might have been if Burns would have told the story in third person.
Due to the southern feel that Burns gives off in the novel, the reader is forced to concentrate while trying to decipher the language. The dialect isn't unmanageable, but it does take time to read. Burns' style takes up for what the dialect lacks. Burns never loses or even confuses one at any time. The author seems to be able to have the reader hanging on at all times. The novel seems to develop as Will Tweedy does. It, the novel, makes one take a look at his or herself and examine his or her life. One may try to avoid becoming a selfless, interdepressed Aunt Loma or an opinionated Will Tweedy. Cold Sassy may stand the test of time. It will hopefully be around hundreds of year from now. This book should be considered a classic for many reasons. One reason is it takes a deep, hard, and real look into southern life during that period of time. It shows some of the values, like family ties and attending church services, that really do exist.
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Summary: The Roots of Cold Sassy
Review: The novel Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns depicts a very realistic image of old, country life in a small town during the1900s.The characters in the novel invest many lively emotions into the story. For example, Rucker Blakeslee and Miss Love Simpson bring much controversy and excitement to the story. The entire plot is mainly based around them. Their decision to get married despite the judgements and gossip of the nosy inhabitants of Cold Sassy, Georgia, foreshadows change that is yet to come to the tired town of Cold Sassy. For example, Rucker finally decideds to mondernize his home, Mr. Tweedy buys a car, and all of the people in the community begin to change their attitudes towards life. Mary Willis and Aunt Loma, the daughters of Rucker Blakeslee, give much drama to the plot. Their emotions and feelings of hatred towards Rucker and Miss Love's marriage symbolize many of Cold Sassy's "old timey" ways. The characters in the novel were believable, interesting, and overall, realistic.
The storyline in the book was readable, and at times exciting. The marriage of Miss Love and Rucker opens up many good and bad emotions from all of the characters in the book. The suicide of Uncle Camp adds drama and sorrow. The purchasing of cars by Mr. Tweedy and Mr. Blakeslee brings change into the novel. New thoughts and feelings emerge on every page, and the reader never knows what might happen next. The author does a fantastic job in organizing the plot. She begins the book by expressing anger and sorrow through the characters, and ends the story with much change and hope. At the end of the novel, the reader is sad due to Rucker Blakesle's death but is still hoping that the families' bonds will continue to grow stronger. The plot of the book is so enthralling that the reader cannot put it down.
The novel's narrator is Will Tweedy, only fourteen years of age. Throughout the book, Will matures rapidly. He is deeply involved with all the drama of the story, beginning with the marriage of Rucker and Miss Love to the death of his beloved grandfather. He also tends to be right in the middle of the problems that occur. During the marriage of his grandfather, Miss Love confides in him, and he learns many new ideas and situations that might be too hard for someone of his age to understand. Burns made an excellent choice by choosing him as the narrator of the story. Because the readers of this novel are mostly in the age range of twelve to sixteen, they can truly relate to Will Tweedy's point of view. Will also gives the novel a sense of immaturity, being that, like Will, the town of Cold Sassy, Georgia is just now experiencing new changes.
The novel Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns strongly deserves to be preserved over time. It certainly entertains and enlightens readers by taking them back to a time in history much different than today. People will definitely be enjoying this book for years to come
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Summary: subtlies of cold sassy
Review: Olive Ann Burns is the imagination behind Cold Sassy Tree. She deserves some recognition for her ability to depict the characters of this novel. Burns gives the reader the ability to fall in love with each individual, or the whole cast of Cold Sassy Tree. The characters of this novel, are all diverse. Each one has a special quality that brings out the best, or in some cases the worst, inside them throughout the novel. Rucker Blakeslee is one particular character in Cold Sassy, who gives the reader the impression that he wants to provoke trouble. After his wife Mattie Lou dies, he marries a woman less than half his age. According to the town he doesn't grieve long enough, which only exacerbates the events to come. Burns' ability to keep these characters diverse, makes it easy for the reader to stay interested. The way Burns portrays the characters, helps the reader to stay connected with what is going on in the novel. The characters of Cold Sassy are down-to-earth humans with flaws, which causes the reader to immediately connect. Most of the characters fully expressed their feelings, and never left the reader wondering about their opinions. Only a few of them are less outgoing and hold back their opinions, such as the Miss Love Simpson. The majority of the main characters in Cold Sassy are gregarious, a few are ambivalent, and the rest are negative. Aunt Loma is always ready to share her remonstrance on whatever problem or situation is occurring.
The Plot of Cold Sassy Tree is exciting, and intriguing. This plot leaves the reader with the impression that something big could happen at any moment in the novel. Olive Ann Burns is very descriptive in explaining many exciting events that occur in the novel. When Will Tweedy is stuck on the train trestle with an oncoming train, Burn's give the impression that the reader is there with Will on that trestle. Almost every event in this novel is intriguing. The main events of this novel cause the reader to feel curious, and leaves him wanting to know more. A few events were more exciting that others, but that is strictly based on one's own opinion of excitement. The setting of Cold Sassy Tree is in Georgia, so it is directed more towards the southern audience. Anyone at any age could fall in love with this book. The Younger generations would be interested in the adventures young Will Tweedy embarks on, and the ways he learns new things by his surroundings. The more mature readers would enjoy the deeper aspects of this novel, such as Grandpa and Miss Love's relationship, and the intensity of the town's opinions against their own. The time period selected for this novel fit very adequately. With a different time period, the book would have given the reader a completely different affect. Cold Sassy Tree is not for those readers who love to be cut off from knowing what will occur next. This novel isn't a type filled with cliffhangers. The book itself is an ongoing cliffhanger. The reader develops a desire to know what will happen to Miss Love and Grandpa Blakeslee, and if anything more will happen with Will and Lightfoot McLendon.
The point of view chosen to narrate this story could not have been better selected. Will Tweedy as an older boy, looking back on his childhood, and what obviously had an effect on him. With Will Tweedy narrating this story, we learn more about Grandpa and Miss Love, we see the older generations, and the youth of this time. Every event and character was described very vividly. Most of the words Burns used were needed for the reader to get a sense of completion and understanding of what was occurring. There are a few cases in which Burns could have used less words in description. Aunt Loma's hatred for Miss Love was understood, but kept coming up and seemed over used.
The dialect of Cold Sassy, is generally easy to interpret. In a few cases, words were not clearly stated, but without that effect, the town of Cold Sassy would not have been the same. This is a southern book, and the dialect give it a southern emphasis, which helps the reader understand the characters. Olive Ann Burns comes up with a magnificent way of interpreting the characters, and expressing the many desires throughout the novel. Such as, the desire for love, the desire for acceptance, the desire for choice and opinion, and the desire for recognition. All these desires are expressed by the characters in Cold Sassy Tree.
Although Olive Ann Burns tells this story with great creativity, she should not be considered a master story teller. This book is full of diverse adventures for the mature mind, and that of the youth, however, it is not a one of a kind masterpiece. Cold Sassy Tree leaves a lasting impression upon the reader, but that is something many books have the capability of doing if the reader devotes them self to the book and the plot. Many books give the same message that Cold Sassy Tree gives to the reader. There are many ways to interpret Cold Sassy Tree, and the reader can choose how they want to glean that information based on their own personalities. That is what makes Cold Sassy Tree a book for everyone.
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Summary: Delimas of a Small Town
Review: Cold Sassy Tree, by Olive Ann Burns, was a very enjoyable book to read, even though it is not the most brilliant work of literature. The character structure in this novel was very well established. The characters were evaluated to the point where you could have a mental picture of them in your head. For example, the description of Miss Love Simpson is superb. "Miss Love, with all of that wavy brown hair piled atop of her head, and that smiley, freckled face and those friendly grey blue eyes. She was a very merry person. Always wore big flowered hats and bright-colored dresses, never "quiet" clothes like the ladies were supposed to wear on the streets (Burns 9)." The characters are extremely interesting in Cold Sassy Tree because each one has a thoroughly different persona. Mary Willis Tweedy is the complete opposite of her sister Loma. Loma is very difficult and self centered. Will justifies his mother, Mary Willis, "Mama is always fair, even when flustered to distraction (Burns 7)." Miss Love is unlike any person in Cold Sassy, she is very chic and only few people in Cold Sassy cared about those matters. Camp, Loma's husband is the antithesis of a hard worker and almost not good for one thing. Hoyt Tweedy, Mary Willis' husband, is a very hard worker and he is a great provider for his family
Cold Sassy Tree can relate to many different ages and a wide variety of audiences. In Burn's novel there is always something exciting happening. The novel starts out with a greatly unexpected marriage of Miss Love and Rucker Blakeslee. Rucker Blakeslee's wife, Mattie Lou, had just died three weeks before he and Miss Love married, and oddly enough Miss Love was young enough to be his daughter. The town was flabbergasted. "Cold Sassy thought it was one thing to like Miss Love and another thing entirely to marry her, especially if your wife died just three weeks ago (Burns 27)." The novel centers around this odd couple, but Burns does not focus completely on them the entire book. For example, Will Tweedy is always on an adventure. He gets run over by the train directly after Rucker and Miss Love are married, and miraculously he survives from it. He even goes on a camping trip with a few of his friends to retrieve a horse for Miss Love. One of the most exciting aspects of the novel is when the automobile is first recognized in Cold Sassy. Hoyt Tweedy drives it to church and everyone in the town is amazed, they had never seen anything like it before. "The automobile had a black canvas roof, slotted rubber tires, and a brass horn, and was shimmying and shaking and backfiring to beat the band (Burns 232)." Though the novel is focused on Miss Love and Rucker Blakeslee, Burns adds various exciting effects to even it out.
Cold Sassy Tree is told in first person point of view. Will Tweedy is the narrator. This was a weak choice on Burn's part because it does not allow the reader to observe the other characters point of view. We only perceive Will Tweedy's opinion during the novel. If another narrative perspective had been used the novel would have been more interesting and perhaps totally different, if the reader was able to observe more of the other characters points of view. This type of narrative gets in the way of the smoothness of the story. The story is shifting in numerous occasions throughout the book. For example, everyone in the novel is upset about the death of Mattie Lou Blakeslee and in shock about the marriage of Miss Love and Mr. Blakeslee. Then, theoretically Will Tweedy gets run over by the train. Cold Sassy Tree is a very uncomplicated book to read and it possibly could be read by a few young readers.
The novel Cold Sassy Tree is a classic. It can relate to many lives and teaches astonishing instruction in life for many people. One of the major themes in the novel is to respect all people and their differences. Olive Ann Burns did a magnificent job with this novel and it will continue to be read for many generations.
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Summary: The Divulgence of Cold Sassy Tree
Review: Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns portrays a small southern town in Cold Sassy, Georgia, which is about to be hit with surprises and innovations. Rucker's peremptory decision to elope with Miss Love Simpson brings twists and vexations to the townspeople.
The characters range from pitiful Uncle Camp to stubborn Rucker Blakeslee. The main character is Will Tweedy, a fourteen-year old, who undergoes the judgements in the plot. He is torn between family feuds, and encounters death, love, and fear. All the characters have well-drawn traits,which stay with them as the plot progresses. For example, Aunt Loma is constantly selfish, and Rucker is always stuck in his ways. One of his beginning lines in the book depicts his stubbornness, "Well,good gosh a'mighty! She's as dead as she'll ever be, ain't she? Well, ain't she?"
The plot draws readers in page by page. Burns has written for a varied audience. The plot appeals to readers ranging from childhood to adulthood. Perpetually, new troubles are being uncovered and lead to exciting resolutions. "Now what I come to say, is I'm aimin' to marry Miss Love Simpson"(5) This line, spoken by Rucker, is the spark of the following tensions among the people of Cold Sassy. One of the tensions, is the belittling of characters like Miss Love Simpson or Lightfoot McClendon. Their social standing never progesses, yet they are good people.
The narrator, Will Tweedy, tells the story thirty years after its completion. It was a circumspect decision to choose him as the narrator. He unveils the dialect of the town. Will describes the town vividly and brings it before us. All ages can relate to him, letting readers feel familiarities they recognize in themselves. His point of view keeps the story moving, without straying off its course. If a different perspective were used, it would not have captured the true feel of the town.
Olive Ann Burns' assemblage of the story captivates readers' interest. She commingles the story together well, for example the maturation of Will runs smoothly throughout the novel. New novelties like cars, electricity,and the changing of the town's name to Progress and the hardened hearts of a few citizens of Cold Sassy who try to stop it, keep this story ageless. It is a novel that learns through time and demonstrate morals that societies of the present and future readers will learn from. Olive Ann Burns has written this great piece of literature, which should be preserved for ages to come.
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